


Reunions

by sonictrowel



Series: Long Night in the Blue House [82]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Action, F/F, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-14 16:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11786676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonictrowel/pseuds/sonictrowel
Summary: “Oh, no,” the President said, a look of resigned horror slowly spreading over her face.  “She’s right, isn’t she?  You’re going to blow the damn Cloisters!  Destroy the Matrix and bring the Panopticon down on top of us!”“Well,” the Doctor croaked, “in my defence, I’m trying really hard not to.”





	Reunions

**Author's Note:**

> Again, major spoilers if you've missed any chapters so make sure you're caught up!! :)

_“You idiot!” River shouted, grabbing his face in her hands.  “Look at me.  I’m right here.  I don’t care what you come out of this looking like or what terrible clothes you’re going to wear or what weird food fixation you’re going to have, I want you alive!  Now just do it!”_

_“No!” Thevros shouted, and drew back hesitantly when River whirled to face her.  “He can’t do it now, that’s… that’s not how it happens!”_

_“W— and who the hell are you?!” River demanded._

_She opened and closed her mouth, looking aside at her redheaded friend.  Eventually, she quietly mumbled “Spoilers.”_

_River gaped at her._

_“I think,” Ariasi said calmly, “we may have identified the threat of the ‘Hybrid.’”_

_“What,” the Doctor gasped, “me?!”_

_“Well, if you want to be technical about it,” she said, “we’re all here.”_

 

“Almost all of us,” Thevros amended nervously.  She lifted her wrist until her coat sleeve dropped back, glancing at her watch.  “Oh, almost time, though.”

“Somebody want to tell me what the fuck is going on?!” the Doctor shouted, nearly doubled over in his effort to contain the energy that was now ringing in his ears.  River’s hand was on his cheek again and he thought the Fop’s was on his shoulder.  

“You two, you… you should get away.  Last time was a little... explodey,” he grumbled.

“And did you stick a cork in it for two weeks before the last time?” his younger self asked.

“Nope,” the Doctor panted.  “So probably get very, very far away.”

“Oh, no,” the President said, a look of resigned horror slowly spreading over her face.  “She’s right, isn’t she?  You’re going to blow the damn Cloisters!  Destroy the Matrix and bring the Panopticon down on top of us!”

“Well,” the Doctor croaked, “in my defence, I’m trying _really hard_ not to.”

“Listen to me, Madam President,” Ariasi said, speaking firmly and urgently.  “I’m not threatening you.  I’m _telling_ you, if you don’t secure the time lock, we won’t be able to stop this.  I’ve seen it, in the Matrix.  Whatever we do here and now will be _fixed,_ but it’s not fixed yet.  Right now, you still have a choice!  If you don’t place the lock, somewhere in Gallifrey’s future, someone _will_ go back to change the past.  If that happens, all the rest of us will never have been here today.  Only _this_ Doctor.”

“So you’re not threatening us,” the President said darkly, “you’re simply telling us _he’ll_ be threatening us in an alternate reality if I don’t do as you command.”

“I’m only telling you what I’ve seen, and what, for a very short time, can still be changed.  Every moment in history is happening simultaneously in a billion, trillion different ways across the web of time, each iteration one tiny step apart from the next, and the consequences of each choice spiral out into infinite possibilities.  That’s what the Time Lords are here to do, isn’t it?  To put down the anchors that hold a reality in place in which Time and the Universe and Gallifrey survive.  That’s what we have to do here, now, where we can make a fixed point.  Or this iteration of reality blips out of existence along with all of us, and the prophecies come true.  You’ve seen exactly how well that ends!”

“Bloody hell,” Thevros said, pale and wide-eyed, placing a hand on Ariasi’s back.  “You must’ve had a time in there, huh?”

“It’s… not pretty,” she replied quietly.

The President watched her carefully.  “I might be prepared to believe you, if you tell me who you are.  You’re clearly a gifted telepath; I’ve never seen anyone manipulate the Matrix with such skill.  Were you trained at the Academy?”

“You know, I used to get that a lot,” she answered with a little smile.

The Doctor watched her, mouth agape, but another surge of energy forced him to curl into himself, eyes screwed shut and jaw clenched.

“Darling, we need to get you out of here,” River whispered urgently.

“B-buh,” he panted, “b’what about the plan?  Time lock.”

“My only concern is making sure you’re safe.  It’s not _our_ plan anyway.”

“Are… you completely sure about that?” the Fop asked slowly.  He was getting that, too, then.

Before she could answer, the crackling _zwwwp_ of a Vortex manipulator announced a new arrival.

The Doctor raised his head again with all the strength he could muster.  

“Am I on time?” Milly asked.  She'd appeared with her back to them, and the Doctor didn’t miss the two Time Ladies' faces brightening in obvious recognition.  She ran forward to embrace the blonde one.

“God, it’s been forever,” Milly said tearfully.  “Who’s your friend?”

Thevros answered something in her ear, and Milly pulled back for a moment, stunned, before she shouted _“Oh!”_ and quickly moved to throw her arms around the redheaded woman too.

Then she finally turned around, and saw the Doctor, River and the Fop.

“Hooo-lyyy…” she trailed off, her mouth hanging open.

The Doctor lifted a glowing, energy-leaking hand to wave weakly at her.  She returned the gesture.

“So this is the Doctor's surviving daughter,” the President said.  "The one who joins the Council in your prediction."

"Oh, don't act like you don't remember me," Milly snorted.  "I probably gave your guards the most excitement they've had in five hundred years."

The President pursed her lips, but it looked like she was fighting a smile.

“S— what the hell does she mean, surviving?!” River whispered, instantly panicked.

“No, River, it’s okay,” the Fop soothed.  “She’s okay.  She’s—”

“Inside?” Milly finished, inclining her head toward the TARDIS as she approached.  She reached into her jacket pocket and drew out Athena’s silver fob watch, glinting in the warm light of the Doctor’s escaping regeneration energy.

The Fop must have nodded over the Doctor's shoulder.

Milly hesitated for a moment, looking between the three of them with an awed smile.  “Gooey reunion stuff in a moment, I promise,” she said, and took off into the TARDIS.

“You… you can’t mean…” River breathed.

“We— well, _he,_ didn’t know until recently,” his younger self said, reaching across the Doctor’s back toward her.

“Oh my god,” she whispered.

“Tried to tell you,” the Doctor choked out.  Speaking was getting more and more difficult.  “Got… bit busy.”

“...all four of them,” the redheaded Time Lady said to the President.  It looked like they'd missed some brief discussion between them.  “Would you like a lift to the Panopticon?  I don’t think we have long.”

The President nodded, and the Doctor suddenly heard a series of nearly instantaneous _zip_ s in the air, and with the final one, he was wrenched free of spacetime for a millisecond and deposited in the Panopticon.

River still had her arm around him, but the Fop had been left behind.

“Honey,” she whispered hoarsely, and when he managed to look up, Milly was standing in front of them, beaming, with her hands on Athena’s shoulders.   

Athena stared at them, tears running down her cheeks and lips parted in stunned silence.

"Oh," he said thickly.  "Welcome back, kitten."

Apparently as lost for words as the rest of them, River moved first to pull them all together.

The Doctor hadn’t exactly been one for group hugs this lifetime, nor for semi-public displays of messy, completely undignified crying, although that one’d already been chucked out the window today.  But he couldn’t imagine anything in the universe more perfect than being wrapped up in a completely gooey, humany bunch with the three of them, together all at once for the second time in his lives.  

Except perhaps if he were not currently in the process of maybe exploding.

“Doctor,” the President said, not unkindly, “I believe we’re on a schedule.”

With great effort he looked over his shoulder, and saw that the obelisk that controlled the Eye of Harmony had been raised.  The red-headed woman was standing off to the side of the room, while the President gestured for them to join her in front of the stone.

They moved across the polished floor in a sort of loose knot, River and Milly supporting him while he put all of his concentration into _not_ ruining this entire thing by blowing them all up.

“If you each place a hand on the stone, it will register your biodata, and your pasts up to this point will be time locked.  But that means no more doubling back on yourselves, either.  This will have to be the last time you take one of your younger incarnations for a day out.”

“And _I’m_ the old one here,” Milly said.  “Suddenly it all makes sense why I was the temporal errand girl… you lot were already locked out.”

“But you still came back,” Athena said.  “Back into our locked time?”

“She already had done,” the Doctor explained, wincing as the energy roiled the closer he came to the stone.  “From me and your Mum’s perspective, that’s all history.”

“...Oh.”

“Told you it was all going to give you a headache,” Milly said.

“Well, my loves, no time like the present,” River said, and placed her hand on the obelisk.  Milly and Athena followed, and the Doctor carefully laid his hand over the stone last.

“It's done,” the President announced wearily.  “You’re safe from past assassinations.  Now if anyone wants to try to kill you, they’ll have to do it to your face.”

“Oh, I much prefer it that way,” River said, and some more chatter followed as she turned to hug their girls individually, but the Doctor couldn’t hear it anymore.  The whirring, ringing of the energy in his ears was deafening, the artron power of the Eye leaching out into the spreading tendrils of energy, and oh, this was going to be bad.

He wrenched his hand away from the obelisk, and the three of them and the President were looking at him with sudden horror, mouths moving soundlessly, and River was reaching for him but everything was getting too bright to see—

_Zip._

It was the last whisper of sound he heard over the roaring in his ears, whip-quick, and in almost the same instant, he finally lost control.

When the energy rushed out in a blinding burst, everything was silent.

 

___

 

The first thing the Doctor was aware of was a voice.  He didn’t quite recognise it at first; not his ears, anyway.  But to another, much more vital part of him, a part that heard without sound, it felt as comforting and intimately familiar as coming home.

Sensation slowly flooded in, and he knew he was being held in small, strong arms.  Gravity seemed to be exerting itself on him with uncommon force, every bone and muscle aching, but he was carefully cradled in a warm embrace.  The voice laughed, like music.

His eyes fluttered open, and at first absorbed no shapes, only colour.  Deep violet dotted with… stars.  Oh, yes.  He’d hoped there’d be stars.

They were bright, very bright, illuminating the night as they had here in his childhood, as they had on Darillium.  Bright enough to see the brilliant red in the lock of wavy hair that moved into his vision as it was caught up on the cool night breeze.

He traced the bright line back to a great soft, rolling mane framing an equally soft, freckled face.

He tried to speak, but nothing really came out but a wordless croak.

She was holding a nav-comm to her ear.  “Yep, he’s coming round,” she said.  “I’ll bring him back when… well, whenever.  Time travel.”

Her bright green eyes looked down into his, a soft smile spreading on her pink lips.  The night air sighed around them as it swept through patches of tall grass, a sound so ancient and familiar that his hearts almost ached, just as they did when he looked into her eyes.

“River,” he mumbled, when finally he could coax his voice into working.  Same one, he noted.  He hadn’t changed.

The smile on her face spread, and she combed her fingers through his hair.  “Hello, sweetie,” she whispered.

The Doctor lifted a trembling hand to her face, brushing his thumb over her cheek.  “You got to be ginger before me?”

She burst into musical laughter again, her eyes creasing with delight.  “I love you, darling.  Nardole owes me twenty quid.”

Oh, Nardole.  Oh, that was good.

He swallowed, feeling his cheeks burn just slightly.  “What did he bet?” he asked roughly.

“Um, that you’d immediately start crying.”

“Wanker.”

She laughed again.

“Wait— River, what happened?”

“You were discharging all the regeneration energy you’ve been saving up, you stubborn idiot.  I brought you out here to let off some steam.  Lucky there’s plenty of nothing to go round on this planet.”

“But, if you were here when it—”

“This,” she said, pointing to her face, “is pretty fresh.  Little bit more didn’t hurt.”

He smiled, letting out a breath in relief as he looked up at her.  “You’re so young.”

“Oi, you _first!_  Always making me the damn cradle snatcher!”

“Well, not this time.  That was for you, I think.”

“I know,” she said softly, smiling down at him.

“But the next one, I go baby-faced again?”

“Oh, yes."

“Maybe cause now I’ve seen you.”

“Mmm, I don’t think you’re going to remember this very well, honey.”

“What?  Why not?”

Her eyes roamed fondly over his face, sparkling with amusement.  “Spoilers.”

The Doctor groaned and she laughed.  “Thought we were done with that rubbish.”

“After this? I think we are.”

“If it’s the last time, then, shame to waste it,” he rasped.

River hummed thoughtfully as she smiled, leaning nearer over his face.  “Darling,” she whispered, “it’s going to come back eventually.  You can’t put off regenerating forever.  There’s no reason to fight it.  I love you.  Always. _We_ love you.  And we’re all going to be there for you.”

He took a shuddering breath as a lump formed in his throat, sliding his hand into her hair and pulling her closer.  “Okay,” he whispered against her lips.

The wind swept through the grass again, the scent of the cool night air washing over him with the sweet pang of nostalgia.  And her kiss, warm and slow and tender and perfect, was the promise of everything yet to come.

___

It transpired that River’s new mode of travel was a time ring.  She wore it on her left hand, and it definitely bore a strong resemblance to his own ring, though the design was more delicate.

“Where’d you get that?” the Doctor asked, as they stood together out on the plain and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

“Hm,” she said, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth, “I wonder.”

He hadn’t exactly meant to, but he was kissing her again before he knew it.

_Zip._

Though they’d obviously travelled, he was having difficulty caring about seeing where they’d ended up.

Someone cleared their throat.

They broke apart, the Doctor’s cheeks burning, and when his eyes scanned the room the first thing they landed on was a mass of gold curls.

“She’s you!” he shouted hastily, as the very same words left the original River’s mouth.

As his brows furrowed in confusion, he took in the fact that she was seated rather cosily in the blonde Time Lady’s lap.

“Wait, _what?!”_ he and River cried in unison.

Milly burst into giggles.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful comments on the last few! We're really almost done now...


End file.
